A power plant for a use device wherein liquid nitrogen and a heated transfer fluid are alternately used to expand and contract a liquid metal like mercury to drive a piston and subsequent drive apparatus.
Automobiles and various industries emit pollutants including sulfur compounds, carbon and nitrogen oxides, and are causing an ever increasing global warming, as well as hazardous health problems on the planet, and this is becoming the world""s most dangerous and preoccupying matter. The rapid increase in demand for automobiles in the world and particularly in Asia, a demand which has doubled in the last four years, requires an urgent solution. The earth""s population is continuously increasing all of which requires more energy and puts huge pressure on the world community to find reliable but clean solutions in this regard.
I have proposed some concepts in a series of patents/inventions so far to address this subject matter in the hope of finding a satisfactory solution. This present invention is a continuation of this effort to find a global solution to the problem of global warming and pollution in such a way that it would encompass the whole cycle of energy which is produced from non-polluting, renewable energy sources from the beginning of the cycle of energy, that is, from the plant which provides fuel through to a zero-emission vehicle. So far, vehicles powered by electric motors, fuel-cells, or hybrid vehicles have not been satisfactory because they have placed the pollution problem back where it is at the starting point of the cycle of energy, that is, at the power generation plant which supplies required energy to charge batteries for electrical cars or at the power generation plant which produces hydrogen from natural gas in the case of fuel-cells.
In my U.S. Pat. No. 6,349,787, xe2x80x9cA Vehicle Having a Turbine Engine and a Flywheel Powered by Liquid Nitrogenxe2x80x9d, and my U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,814, xe2x80x9cApparatus and Method for Producing Liquid Nitrogenxe2x80x9d, I have tried to disclose a complete energy cycle system. I am aware of the huge task and effort needed to be addressed to introduce these systems to the world. Nevertheless, my innovations are possible. At the liquid nitrogen producing facility, I have suggested a new concept of using mercury expansion to replace gas turbines and/or diesel generators to produce the actual fuel (liquid nitrogen) needed for vehicles. That is, the disclosures of both patents work together with respect to the complete cycle of energy.
As a further example of my thinking, my U.S. Pat. No. 5,960,635 xe2x80x9cAir Conditioning Apparatus using Liquid Nitrogenxe2x80x9d is also an effort to reduce pollution in the atmosphere by replacing pollutant CFC used generally in air-conditioning, which is enlarging the ozone hole in the stratosphere of the planet, by liquid nitrogen, which is a clean and renewable source of energy. If we really want to solve the environmental problems, we need to go back to where the whole cycle of energy starts. There is no way to solve the pollution problem on earth without tackling the initial part of the cycle of energy. We might need to do some sacrifice because of the low energy density of such new systems. That is, we may not be able to travel as fast as gasoline vehicles, but if we look at the actual need for vehicles in towns and cities, the tendency is to go 20-50 miles per hour which could be easily achieved by a pollution-free vehicle and, thus, at no cost to our health and using a much cheaper renewable source of energy-liquid nitrogen. On the other hand, if we want to go 300 miles per hour, a speed which is practically unreasonable on city streets and even on highways, we will pay with our health quite dearly. Thus, I have tried in the present invention to consider some of my earlier concepts in order to develop a satisfactory power plant and vehicle that would be pollution-free and yet be competitive with gasoline vehicles and conventional power plants.
The present invention is based on my earlier invention of U.S. Pat. No. 6,205,814, xe2x80x9cApparatus and Method for Producing Liquid Nitrogenxe2x80x9d in which I proposed using liquid mercury, due to its high expansion coefficient, to drive a piston that would in successive strokes of compression and contraction bring air to a liquid state in order to extract liquid nitrogen from it. The present invention is a modification and novel use of this technology wherein a mechanism is disclosed that would generate power for a use device which could be a vehicle such as a car, a forklift, a ship, a train, a bus or any other device needing power. The present invention is directed to the specification of a power plant apparatus and its mode of operation directly embodied on board a vehicle or on the ground.
More particularly, but in a broad sense, the present invention is directed to a power plant for powering a use device. There is a liquid metal and a substantially incompressible fluid, as well as a fuel tank containing liquid nitrogen. There is also a reservoir containing a transfer fluid for heating the liquid metal. A control system alternately controls the communication of liquid nitrogen from the fuel tank to cool the liquid metal and communication of the transfer fluid from its reservoir to heat the liquid metal thereby causing the liquid metal to contract and expand and thereby moving the incompressible fluid to drive a piston. The piston is operably installed to drive a crankshaft which in turn powers the use device.